Transcriber's Note
- The position of some illustrations has been changed to facilitatereading flow.
- The frontispiece featuring a picture of Elizabeth Whitney Williams(noted in the table of illustrations at the beginning of the text) ismissing from the original scanned book.
- In general, geographical references, spelling, hyphenation, andcapitalization have been retained as in the original publication.
- Minor typographical errors—usually periods, commas and hyphens—havebeen corrected without note.
- Significant typographical errors have been corrected and are marked withdotted underlines. Place your mouse over the highlighted word and the original text willappear. A full list of these same correctionsis also available in the Transcriber's Corrections section at the end ofthe book.
This edition of "A Child of the Sea" is being printed under theauspices of the Beaver Island Historical Society, to give our friendssome of the history and legend of the Island. The story begins in theearly 1800's, discussing particularly the occupancy by the Mormons, overa century ago, and continuing through the resettlement of the Island bythe Irish, whose descendants still live there.
A CHILD
OF THE
SEA; AND
LIFE AMONG
THE MORMONS
BY
Elizabeth Whitney Williams.
Copyrighted 1905.
Elizabeth Whitney Williams.
Having lived all my life beside the water, with my brothers and manydear friends sailing on the lakes, and with the loss of many of mypeople by drowning, connected with the many years of my life as a LightKeeper, I affectionately dedicate this little book, with fragments of mylife history, to the sailor men in whose welfare I have always felt adeep interest.
Elizabeth Whitney Williams.
Introductory.
At the earnest request of many friends I have written this book withsome incidents of my early life before coming to Beaver Island.
What I have written about the Mormons are my own personal experiencesand what I knew about them by living constantly near them for four yearsof my life; our leaving the island and settling at Charlevoix for safetythen our being driven from there. After the fight then my life inTraverse City and finally returning to Beaver Island again. After theMormons were expelled my twenty-seven years' residence at that time withthe four first years gives thirty-one years of Beaver Island life withas much knowledge of Mormon life as any one outside of their teachingscould possibly have. In this little history I have only touched lightlyupon the reality, writing what my memory contained that might beinte